Re: Alt Key in Xy4

[Carl Distefano CLDistefano@xxxxxxxx]

Reply to note from "EBERLE, JIM"  Tue, 22 Jul 97 17:30:32 +0000

-> Once again, I'm in need of some assistance in making a key in
-> Xy 4.017 work the way it did in Xy 3+. I'm referring to
-> the Alt key, which, in Xy 3+ was used in combination with
-> a letter or number key to retrive save-gets.
-> ...
-> ... This doesn't work quite like the Alt function in Xy 3+, but
-> it's close. The difference is that it's not a good idea
-> to hold down the Alt key ...

Jim:

You've fallen prey to the urban legend that would make Xy4 radically
different from its predecessors. If you buy into that myth, then
it's natural to seek kludge-y workarounds which "emulate" things
that earlier versions did with native ease. Natural, but
unnecessary.

There's no need to fiddle with multiple Alt-key definitions or func
SG.  The problem is not in the Alt-key definitions. As with other
shifted keys in Xy4|XyWin, those keystrokes take effect only when
the key is _released_ without first hitting another key (which is
why you're getting error beeps with func SG assigned to key 56).
This is actually a very useful feature -- you can assign any
function you want to "bare" Ctrl, Alt and other shifting keys -- but
(in Xy4DOS) it has no effect whatsoever on what you get when you
hold down Alt and press _another_ key before releasing _both_. The
procedure for assigning keystrokes to such Alt-key combinations is
the same as ever.

Your problem is not with the Alt keys per se, but (in all
likelihood) with the TABLE=ALT definitions for the keys
corresponding to the "ordinary" save/gets (A-Z|0-9). In the default
layout (XY4.KBD), those keys have menu "accelerator-key" functions
(e.g., 30=GT,AK,A). In your layout, they may be mapped to something
else. What you *want* to map them to are the familiar save/get
functions (e.g., 30=@A).

So, here's what to do: Leave the KEYS table and Alt-key assignments
alone. Assign funcs @A-@Z and @0-@9 to the keys corresponding to A-
Z and 0-9 in TABLE=ALT. ReLOAD your .KBD file. In other words,
exactly what you did in Xy3! No difference. Nada.

Regards,
Carl Distefano